Grip and shock absorption elements are commonly used on various articles to provide a cushioning effect. More particularly, grip elements have been designed for placement on the gripping portion of hand-held articles to increase comfort during gripping of the hand-held article. Because grip and shock absorption elements are provided to address different problems or user needs, a variety of different grip and shock absorption elements with different properties are available.
For instance, for purposes of increased comfort to users who grip a handheld article very tightly, grip elements of soft foam have been provided to permit ready deformation of the grip element and resulting in enhanced comfort during gripping thereof. In recent years, grip elements filled with fluid or gel materials have become popular as well. However, due to the nature of such grip elements, they tend to rebound to their initial shapes once the compressing force is released. Therefore, when using hand-held articles with any of these deformable grip elements, the user has to hold the grip element continuously and tightly in order to retain the desired deformed shape, which is the user's comfortable grip configuration. The continuous and tight holding of the grip element can easily fatigue the user's hand and fingers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,581 to Chadwick et al. discloses a customizable gripping device. The gripping device employs a controllable fluid that is capable of changing its state from fluid to solid upon the application of an appropriate energy field. When the controllable fluid is in its fluid state and thus is deformable, the user is free to imprint a customized grip in the gripping device. When the controllable fluid changes to its solid state thereafter, the customized grip is “frozen” and the user's grip is “memorized.” As a result, the user need not keep gripping the article tightly to retain the customized grip. However, the Chadwick et al. patent involves an additional activating assembly for applying a field to the controllable fluid to change its Theological behavior.
It would be desirable to provide a grip element that not only can readily deform to provide a comfortable grip for the user but also can retain the desired deformed shape, which is the user's comfortable grip configuration, without the need of applying a continuous compressing force thereunto. It would also be desirable for such grip element to maintain the desired deformed shape without application of an energy field thereto.